







?.* i>^"\ MWS ..^^'X ^lE^^' ^ ^^'"-^^ . ^^^^^ 



























OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 



FRED A. GANNON 



Low^ Prices of the Gay Nineties 

Ola Salem Sayings ana 

Miscellany 




SHOPPING AT THE GROCERY STORE 



Printed by ISTewcomb & Gauss 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for the 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGrath, President. 






Q'. : / 






'.', / , xf./5 ;/ 



4PR6 t960 




OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 



^9 



FRED A. GANNON 



Low Prices of tke Gay Nineties 

old Salem Sayings and 

Miscellany 




SHOPPING AT THE GROCERY STORE 

Printed by J^ewcomb & Gauss 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for the 

^Salem Books Co., M. F. McGrath, P reside ul. 



^ 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



TIIK LOW IMUOKS OF TlIK GAV NIXETIES 

Iiitrodiu'tiou 

"Kiircknl I've foiiiid out why the nineties were 
i:^ay" said lehahod, the Amateur Economist. 

"^faybe you wouhl like to know the why, if you 
are wrestling- with the H. C. L., 20 taxes, pin money, 
etc. etc." 

"We would indeed" said the Tips and Downs in 
unison. The club had dined, and wanted somebody 
to talk to it. So lehabod, the Ama-Economist, spoke 
his piece. 



THE CJOOI) OLD DAYS 

''You've heard, have you not, of the good old days 
when a (h)llar bought a lot of fodder, fuel, fabric 
and what not, and — 

"Costs of living were so low^ a young fellow could 
take time off now and then to go fishing, or just loaf, 
and — 

"Old folks took life easy on savings bank money, 
and — 

'Mt didn't cost a fortune to go to school,, or a wed- 
ding, or a picnic. 

"Them were the good old days. Alas and Alack! 
''Tliey've gone never to return. But maybe you 
Avouhl like to hear about theuL 



Old Sale^e Scrap Uook 



BKEAD AXD BUTTER PRICES 

Just cast the eyes over some prices that the pre- 
decessors paid. Feast the mind upon them. The 
like won't be quoted again. 

*'Flour at from $4 to $4.50 a barrel, delivered to 
the kitchen closet. A loaf of bread, or a pan of hot 
biscuits, made from the flour, cost about five cents. 
A penny's worth of yeast, from the neighboring- 
store, raised a batch of bread. 

A five pound box of creamery butter cost $1. 
Cookina' butter, IT cents re^'ular and 14 cents on 
bargain days. 

Molasses, and youngsters liked 'lasses on bread, 
was had for ten cents a quart, or 30 cents a gallon, 
the buyer supplying the jug. If five gallons were 
bought, the grocer gave a keg for it. 

Bread, good home-made bread, was the staff of 
lif^ of the gay nineties. A pan of hot gingerbread 
was a feast. There were also the gingerbread men 
for children to devour. 



1 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



CHEAP HEAT 

Heat, the second necessity, it coming next after 
food, was also low priced in the gay nineties. 

Coal cost $5 a ton and up for the hard kinds. 
Soft coal was cheaper. Some mixed the bituminous 
with tan, had free from the tanneries, and kept the 
home fires burning. 

Wood cost $5 a cord, more or less, the buyer to 
saw and split it, and stack it in the wood shed. That 
was oft the task of boys. 

Boys also gathered up waste wood from shops, 
limbs trimmed from tree, and old shingles taken off 
the roof tops, and added them to the fuel supply. 

The kitchen stove, after cooking food all day, 
warmed the family circle in the evening. The stove 
in the parlor was heated up Sundays. A few had 
bed room stoves, and in them made "quick fires" 
morning and evening. 

Thrifty folks let the fires out at night and started 
them again in the morning, unless it was so cold the 
water was likely to freeze. 

A few hardy old timers opened the window when 
the thermometer marked above 60. They wore red 
flannels. 



Old Salem ScRAr Book 



$5 and $10 SUITS 

"Clothes, the third necessity, also were low of 
price in the gay nineties," continued Ichabod, The 
Amateur Economist. 

"A $10 bill bought a Sunday best suit, all wool, 
and ready made. A work suit, also of wool, cost 
$5. 

''Trousers, sometimes called panta, or pantaloons, 
cost $2.50. Overcoats were had at from $5 to $10, 
regTilar price, and sometimes at half price for odds 
and ends at bargain sales. 

'^A custom made suit cost $12.50 at McManus & 
McCarthy's store, ''open evenings." Some tailors 
charged more. 

''A Little Lord Fauntleroy suit, or a sailor suit, 
for the small boy, cost $2.50 and up. School suits 
also were cheaper. Sometimes the store gave a base- 
ball bat with each suit. 



HABERDASHEKY PEICES 

The Iiaberdashers sold black derby hats at $1.50 
and up. Hard hats, oft worn until the crown got 
cracked. Straw hats 50 cents. 

A white shirt, if laundered to a stiff bosom, was 
had for 75 cents. If bought ''soft" and starched and 
ironed at home, the charge was but 50 cents. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



Collars and ciitfs, to be attached to shirts, sold as 
cheap as five cents each. Thrifty men bought cellu- 
loid collars. 

An ardinary necktie cost a quarter, and a ''dress 
up tie" as much as 50 cents. Cotton stockings were 
as cheap as 12-J cents a pair. 

Home knitted mittens kept the hands warm in 
winter. 

PIE PRICES 

"Boys, who went to High School in The Gay Nine- 
ties, recessed to Pease k Price's bake shop and 
feasted on Washington pie at the rate of a nickel 
for a quarter of a pie, big round, and thick through, 
"Dinny" put so much raspberry jam in it that the 
jam oozed out on to the fingers. The man who 
wanted a morning snack, got a piece of pie for a 
nickel, and a cup • of coffee for another nickel at 
most any restaurant. 

'^As for home made pies, apples for them cost $1 
a barrel, and pie meat, for mince pies, three cents 
a pound. Lard for making the pie crust cost a nickel 
a pound. Old fashioned house keepers "tried out" 
lard, they made it in the kitchen. 

Pies were baked six and twelve and twenty on 
baking day, and were served for breakfast, dinner 
and supper. Men folks had a piece of pie," with a 



( )li> Sai.k.m S(i;ai» IJook 



slice of cheese,, before going to bed. When young- 
sters went to grandmothers for Tliaidvsgiving dinner, 
tliree pieces of pie, mince, apple and scpiash, wvvo 
served after turkey, and there was also phim })nd- 
dinc;. 



5 & 10 CENT L0E8TEKS 
^Ir. Weeks, the lobster man who pushed the cart 
around, sold little lobsters for a nickel and large 
ones for a dime. Harbor lobsters, fresh from the 
kettle. 

Down town folks walked to the lobster houses on 
Salem Neck and bought a basket of lobsters for 50 
cents; or 60 or 75 cents, according to the number 
and size of the lobsters in the basket. For Sunday 
dinner, a whole lobster was put on each plate. 

Some dw^ellers on the water front pulled lobsters 
from their traps, or from sea w^eed on the rocks — 
or they dug a mess of clams from the sands. Free 
food, Avas it not ? 

15 CENT STEWS 

The restaurant near City Hall, at one time 
Masury's and at another Hutchinson's, served a bowl 
of beef stew that w^as a meal, for 15 cents,^and on 
Fridays a bowl of fish chowder for a like price. 



()li> Sai.e:\[ Scrap Book 



At Xewcomb's oyster house, in Derby Market a 
clam cake cost a nickel, and it was so big and sturdy 
that one cake, and a cup of coffee, made a noon lunch 
for some. 

Beans, ''a thousand on a plate" for a dime, with 
two slices of bread, was restaurant routine. 

The "hot dog carts" sold a sausage on a roll for 
a nickel, and, fol* the same price a sandwich of thick 
sliced ham, and a slice of onion free if wished. 



CHEAP SWEETS 

I. P. Harris <t Read sold white sugar at five cents 
a pound in the spring of 1897, and at 3^ cents on 
bargain days. 

Brown sugar, preferred by some, was quoted at 
3 J cents, and loaf sugar, for the tea party at 5-J 
cents. 

Vermont maple sugar at two pounds for 25 cents, 
and syrup at $1 a gallon, and 79 cents for the lesser 
grades. 

"Hand rolled" chocolates at 20 cents a pound. 
The best girl liked them. 

Children bought sticks of candy for a penny, six 
sticks for a nickel. Elders bought peppermint drops 
for a dime a pound. Rock candy cost more. 

'I'hc conicr drug store served a glass of soda, 



Old Salkm Sck'ai' IJook 



vanilla, chocolate or strawberry, for a nickel, and 
iiii ice cream soda, or a milk shake, for a dime. A 



lollar boui>ht a gallon of ice cream. 



"Billy'' Nourse, at his celebrated store opposite 
City Hall, served ice cream at five cents a plate — 
two spoons if a boy shared the cream with his chum. 



50 CENT FISH J)C\NERS 

A fish dinner cost 50 cents at the sea shore restau- 
rant. That was for the ordinary chowder, clam, lob- 
ster and ice cream dinner. 

The ''Extra Special" cost $1. Platters of fried 
sea food were put on the table. '"Help yourself." 



FREE FOR CATCHIM; 

Men and boys rowed down the harbor and fished 
for fun as well as for food. Cunners and flounders 
were hauled up on the line, oft enoug'h to share with 
the neighbors. One afternoon in the fall more than 
100 men and boys were fishing for smelts off Derby 
wharf. Others with hook and line on other wharves, 
and in boats. 



10 Old Salem Scrap Book 

CRACKERS & CHEESE 

Common crackers cost six cents a pound. Coun- 
try cheese, including sage cheese, was had for 15 
cents a pound. The grocer offered a piece cut from 
the big cheese on the counter and said "Try the 
Taste." . 

Cobb, Bates & Yerxa, in the spring of 1897, 
offered Rcxjuefort cheese at 30 cents a pound. 

Alilk was five or six cents a quart. A bowl of 
crackers and milk was a low priced supper. 

Boys picked blueberries in the pastures, to be 
added to the crackers and milk, also to be made into 
berry pies. 

Fruit stores sold blue berries at ten cents a quart, 
and strawberries, along al>out Fourth of 'July time, at 
three boxes for 25 cents. 



AGE OF ABUNDANCE 

^'Now I've told you enough to show that the family 
budget was hut a f(^w dollars a week in the gay nine- 
ties. 

"The reason why, which I promised to tell, is that 
taxes were low.'' 

So saying, Inchabod, The Amateur Economist, 
took his seat, and a glass of water. The Chief Upper 



Old Salem Scrap Book 11 

of the Club rose, said Thank you to Ichabod, and to 
the members — ^'Any question, gentlemen, about the 
abundance that made the nineties gay? 



CHEAP en^tertainme:n^t 

''What price amusements ?'' asked the cheerful 
youth. 

Ichabod said — '^10, 20 and 30 cents for admission 
to "The Chimes of ISTormandy, or other popular 
operas by the Andrews, Moulton & Johnson Co. A 
reserved seat to hear a minstrel show, amateur or 
professional, 50 cents. Admission 25 cents. 

''A car ride to The Willows cost a nickel. Some 
walked for exercise and to view the scenery. Free 
concerts by the Salem Cadet band, Jean Missud, 
leader. 

"For $2 a young fellow hired a horse and buggy, 
in winter a horse and sleigh, and took his best girl 
to ride. 

"Sunday evenings, young people gathered about 
the piano, or the organ, in the parlor and sang the 
old songs. 

Pleasant, inexpensive ways to maintain morale, 
were thev not ? 



12 Old Salem Scrap Book 



CHEAP MEAT 

**Wliat were meat prices ? You haven't said much 
about them.'' So remarked the family man. 

Ichabod replied — ''I'll quote a few. Sirloin steak 
'2d cents a pound; chuck steak two pounds for 25 
cents, rolled roast 15 cents, stew beef three cents. 
Pork seven cents, Lamb eight cents. Turkeys IS 
cents. Thrifty shoppers got a turkey from a stand 
in Derby Market for $1. 

''Liver three pounds for 25 cents. Bacon 15 cents. 
Frankforts two pounds for 25 cents. Hams ten cents 
a pound and smoked shoulder at seven. Some Salem 
families raised pigs and had the hams and bacon 
smoked by "Billy" Glidden. 

''Corned beef cost from three to six cents a pound. 
Quail at $1.50 a dozen. Pie meat, for mince pies, 
three cents. If Fido went to the store with the 
shopper, the meat cutter tossed him a bone to take 
home. 



DIME SHAVES 

The poet, long of hair, arose and asked "What 
prices at the barber s ?" 

Ichabod reported — "A shave for a dime, and a 
hair cut for a quarter. Boy's 15 cents. Beards 
trimmed for a dime." 



Or.i> Salk.m Scrap IJook 13 

$2 A DAY HOTELS 

What about hotels^ asked the traveling man. 

Icliabod replied — ^'Tlie rate in commerical hotels 
was $2 a day and up. A boarding house offered 
rooms at $2 a week and up, and board for $3.50 a 
week. 

''A meal ticket at a restaurant, or eating house 
was as cheap as $3. The price of breakfast, dinner 
and supper for a week. Hotels put on pretty good 
banquets for $1 a plate. 

Some summer hotels had a rate of $1 a day. 

''Down on the farm" the charge was $3 or $4 a 
week. 



THE $2.98 EASTER B0:N^NET 

''Did ladies' clothes cost much" inquired I^ewly- 
wed. 

"Of that, I'm not informed as much as I might 
be" Ichabod replied. "However^ I'll quote from the 
records. 

"An Easter bonnet, in 1897, cost $2.98. A wire 
frame, to be trimmed at home, was had for 25 cents 
at Frank Cousin's Bee-Hive. Ribbons, 5 cents a 
yard. 



14 Oli> Salem Sckap Book 

"Spring suits, and coats, cost from $5 to $10. 
Some women bought fabrics at from 25 to 50 cents 
a yard, and made their dresses at home. 

''Bicycle suits, the sport clothes of the gay nine- 
ties, were had for $6.75 at Webber's. The ankle 
length models. 

'"Black cotton stockings, some with double soles, 
were quoted at 25 cents a pair. Black kid boots 
at $2 and a button hook free with each pair. 

"Xo beauty parlors in the gay nineties, you know." 



LOW TAXES— LOW PRICES 

"Tell us more about low taxes, if you please," said 
the man who had just bought a house. 

"With pleasure," Ichabod replied. "The local rate 
was $16 or $17 per $1000. It was low when the 
watchdogs of the treasury were on guard in City 
Hall. 

"Keeping down public spending was the popular 
purpose in the gay nineties. The mayor got $1500 
a year. The aldermen served for the honor of the 
office. 

"The police chief was paid $30 a week, and police- 
men from $16 to $18. The fire chief, a part-time 
worker, got $15 a week. Firemen were volunteers, 



()li> Salem Sckap Ix)()K 15 

with a few exceptions, like the engineers and d rivers. 
The hitter got abont $20 a week. They t(M)k care 
of the horses and greased the wagon wheels. 

All along the line, for teachers, city men, mean- 
ing street department men, and lamp lighters, and 
clerks, the pay was $20 a week, more or less. 

So taxes were low. And the city tax was the 
chief tax, there being no income taxes, state or fed- 
eral, nor profit taxes, no excise taxes on automobiles 
because the horseless vehicles were few, — and as for 
the tax on tobacco it was so low that no smoker 
noticed it. 

^'So, you see, taxes didn't roll up like a snow ball, 
and swell and swell costs of food, clothing and shelter. 

''Prices were low because taxes were low in the 
gay nineties, and young fellows could afford to take 
a day off now and then and go fishing, or loaf, and 
the old folks lived easy on savings bank money. The 
good old days, were they not ^" 



IC Oli> Salem Scrap Book 

OLD SALEM SAYINGS 

Such as The Ohl Folks Were Brought Up On. 



INTRODUCTION^ 

''Listen, my ehihiren, and you shall hear" some of 
the sayings that old folks were brought up on. 

So will others who ''lend me their ears." 

"Short sayings express the wit and genius of a 
city" said the sage. 

We offer a few old Salem sayings. Among them, 
may be, you'll find one worth keeping in mind. 

A quip in time, you know, ends the argument, 
caps the climax and makes the nub of a story. It 
also livens up the conversation; and the correspond- 
ence. 



Ot.I) Sai.km Sckap Hook 17 



BEXTLKY'S HITS 

We'll bt'iiiii with a few bits of wisdom by Dr. 
Bentl(\v, pastor of the old East church who ''took the 
whole town for his parish/' In his diarv he jotted 
down such lines as these: — 

"Let not inclination, nor impulse, wrest the helm 
from reason.'' 

''Everv man is entitled to the kind look, the fami- 
liar reply and the most pleasing civilities." 

Of a critic he said: — 

''He has all senses excepting common sense." 

Of a candidate for office he remarked : — 

"ITe elaimed to be a self made man. But all parts 
of the work were not well done." 

Of a letter critical of a current topic Bentley 
said: — 

"It is not penned with that accuracy which might 
have been wished." 

After too freely expressing his own views he wrote 
as a rule for future guidance : — 

"Put thv hand over the door of thv mouth." 



18 



Old Salem Sckap Book 



TRADE PHRASES 

AVe'll go on with phrases that men learned in tlieir 
trades, such as these: — 

''Strike while the iron is hot" said the smith. 

"Hit the nail on the head" exclaimed rlie carpen- 
ter. 

"As square as a brick" observed the mason. 

"Cut the coat to fit the cloth" advised the thrifty 
tailor. 

"A stitch in time saves nine" claimed the mender. 

"Save at the spigot and waste at the bunghole" 
observed the grocer. 

''Every tub should stand on its own bottom" 
affirmed the cooper. 

"As empty as a barrel" said the critic of the 
stump speaker's speech. 




Old Salem Sckap Book 19 

ADMONITIONS TO APPRENTICES 

Oft was the ai)])reiitice urged to ''Double Dili- 
geuee" — x\nd was reminded to "Waste not— want 
not." And that "a penny saved is a penny earned.'^ 
Further, he was tokl to "be as busy as a bee/' and 
was sometimes advised that "the longest way round 
is the shortest way home.'' 

The poet put it : — 

"Little Johnny Purchase going to the mill. 

"The farthest wav round is tbe shortest wav home." 



"FOOL'S ERRAND" 

The witty master workman sent his apprentice 
on "a fool's errand" so as to "sharpen his wits." He 
told the lad to go for "a left handed monkey wrench," 
"a bucket of steam," "a pound of white lamp black" 
or a "quart of oil of spikes." 

The printer told his "devil" to look for '^type lice." 
When the unlucky wight had his eyes close to the 
types the printer sharply closed the form and the lad 
got his face spattered with inky water. 

Thjd school teacher said — "If at first you don't suc- 
ceed, try try again." The cynic exclaimed — "All 
play and no work makes Jack a dull boy." 



2(y Olp Salem Scrap Book 

SAYINGS NAUTICAL 

We'll go ou with sayings bv Jack Tar, Ben Bol- 
trope/Bill Boystav and Harrv Haulyard, seaman of 
old Salem. 

They told of Jonah, who had an adventure with 
a whale, and of Davy's Jones who kept a locker 
way down below. 

They said sharp things about ""ship cousins" and 
^'dirt sailors," meaning those who talked sailor talk 
and ne'er went near the w^ater — also of ''brass heads," 
the "brass hats" of their time. 

"Horse Marines" Avere drivers of baggage wagons. 

"Free gigs" were free lunches. 

"Salem harbor mess' was a fish dinner. 

"The Pepper Port" was Salem's nickname in the 
period what Salem ships brought home hot spice for 
the nation. 

"Keep the jaw port shut" cried the sailor. The 
poet said "Silence is golden." 

"As loud of one of Peale's whispers" was said 
of the captain who "had a voice like a fog horn." 



Old Sat>k.m Scrap IJook 21 

-PATIENCE IS A VIKTl E" 

'^'Slowly., young ladies, grace is never in a liuri'v." 
Tlie admonition of a Salem matron to "The younger 
set." 

"Nothing can be more useful to a man than a 
determination not to be hurried." So Thorean said 
as he looked upon ""slaA^es of speed" in his time. 



-PANDEMONIUM PREVAILS" 

"Universal madness riots in Main st." So Haw 
thorne commented as he viewed the passing scene. 



-GOING TO THE BOW WOWS" 

"A nation cannot long exist when the highest pitch 
of excitement is demanded every minute." So Dr. 
Bentley remarked as he viewed "unquiet and scambling 
times." 



QUAKER WORDS 

One man of Salem in 19T7 could (but seldom did) 
use the old Quaker words ^^thee" and "thou" and 
"thine." 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



IRISH PHRASES 

Here and there are men who speak the cheery 
•greeting — ''Top of the morning to you" and bidding 
a friend goodby, add ''God bless you." 



"BE 01^ TIME" 

A wit of city hall once added to a notice of a com- 
mittee meeting these lines: — 

"The strongest dictates of our soundest reason re- 
([uire each member to be here in season." 



HOME SOXGS 

"Seeing N'ellie Home." P. S. Gilmore wrote this 
song, of a maid of Salem it is said. 

Boys of old Salem liked to sing — ''When Johnny 
Comes Marching Home Again. 

ODD & e:n"ds 

"Ir rains pitchfolks." 
"Cold enough to freeze a crow bar." 
' "As hot as hasty pudding." 
"As slow as cold molasses." 
"As old as Methuselah." 



Oi.i) Saij;m S( i;ai' Uook 23 

^'HEEDLESS HARRY" 

"A'^ows went in one ear, and out tlu^ other." So it 
was said of '^Heedless Harrv." 



IRRITABLE PEOPLE 

''Small pot, soon hot." So it was remarked of 
peppery persons. 

''His nose is out of joint" was said of "the likes 
of him." 



FROM "THE HEADS" 

"Rock 'em round the* corner'' w^as the cry in old 
Marblehead when "the silk stockings" of Salem 
appeared in town. 



"COURTIXG" TERMS 

"Sitting on her front door steps" — "Waiting on 
her" and "sparking," later "dating." The old terms 
of the years w^hen Salem folks sat on their front 
door steps summer evenings and Jack sat beside his 
Jill. 



24 



()i.i> Salem Schai' 1>(^ok 



STYLE NOTE 

"The young lady had just made a purchase of the 
prettiest and most simple village bonnet that ever a 
woman Avore/- 

Miss Silsbeo 1887. 




Old Salkm Scrap JJook 25 



SEEING THINGS 

"Ht'\s a star gazer" — an optimist. 

"He looks tlirougii dark* glasses" — a pessimist. 

There was the man who ^'had a gimlet eye/' the 
man who had '^eyes like an owl," the man who ''could 
^rc through a knot hole." 

And now there's the man who asks — 'Svhere did 
1 put my glasses?" 



^'BE YOUR AGE" 

''A man can not pick cherries in Kent in Decem- 
ber." 

Brought over by the forefathers. 



PESSIMIST'S EPITAPH 

"Reader, I've left your world in which I had a 
world to do, sweatting and fretting to get rich, and 
just as much a fool as you are." 

An inscription on a tomb stone, reported in The 
Salem Gazette of 1798. 



''EARLY TO RISE" 

"We got up in time to pry up the sun." A familiar 
saying of horse and buggy days. 



26 Old Salk.m Scrap Book 

8PIC k SPAX 
*'He looks as if he stepped out of a band box." 
'"She looks as if she came out of the top draw of 
the bureau.'' 

So it was said of the neatly dressed. 

"The dude" was a fop of '^the gay nineties." 



WORTH REMEMBERI^nTG 

''Remember what happended to tlie man who could 
resist everything but temptation." 

Another saying of horse and buggy days. 



RELATIVE VALUES 

"A drink from a little spring is sweeter than a 
cup of water from a big river." 

"Is it better to be a big toad in a little puddle or 
-a little toad in a big puddle?" 

THE DAY'S WORK 

"It is such a labor to task the faculties of a man — 
such problems of profit and loss, of interest, of tare 
and tret, and gauging of all kinds in it, as (Iciiiaiids 
a universal knowdedgc." 

Thoreau so wrote of merchants of old Salem. 



Old Salem Scrap Uodk 27 

'^A FACT IS A FACT" 

For good measure, we'll add a few lines from a 
simple rhyme that the ancestors brought over: — 

There was a monkey climbed up a tree. 
When he fell down, then down fell he. 
There was a crow set on a stone. 
When he was- gone, there was none. 
There was an old wife did eat apple. 
When she ate two, she had eat a couple. 
There was a horse going to the mill 
When he got there, he stood still. 
There was a butcher did cut his thumb. 
When it did bleed, then blood did come. 
There was a lackey ran a race. 
When he ran fast, he ran apace. 
There was a cobbler clouting shoon. 
When they were mended, they were done. 
There was a chandler making a candle. 
When he them strip, he did them handle. 
There was a navy went into Spain. 
When it returned, it come again. 



28 Old Salem Scrap Book 

THE DAY'S EXD 

''Arrived at my haven of earthlj' rest at -(/o past 
ten : committed myself to the arms of Morpheus & 
to the care of a gracious God." 

William Wait Oliver wrote the lines in his diary 
after taking two long walks on Augus't 8, 1802. 
Oliver was deputy collector in Salem Custom House 
in Hawthorne's time. He lived n^ear 100 years. 



SIGNING OFF" 

We add ''turn rule" of the printer and so end this 
assortment of sayings of old Salem. 

Among them, may be, is one or two worth keeping 
in mind for use "in the nick of time" to end an 
argument, "cap the climax," "nub the anecdote," or 
enliven the gossip of the hour. 

P. S. More later, perhaps. Collecting sayings 
looks like an interesting hobby. 



Old Salem Sckai> IJook 29 



"THE LAST CIGAR" 

Some smokers of choice cigars, in Salem in the gay 
nineties, could recite from memory the poem about "The 
Last Cigar." It was written by J. Warren Fabens, who 
was fond of the sea and poetry, and good cigars, while 
he was on a voyage in 1887. The poem : — 

'Twas off the blue Canaries, 

A glorious summer day, 

I sat upon the quarter deck 

And whiffed my cares awaj- 

And as the volumed smoke arose, 

Like incense in the air, 

I heaved a sigh to think, in sooth, 

It was my last cigar. 

I leaned against the quarter rail 

And gazed down in to the sea ; 

E'en there the airy wreaths of smoke 

Were curling gracefully. 

Oh, what had I at such a time 

To do with wasting care? 

Alas, the trembling tear proclaims 

It was my last cigar. 

I watched the ashes as it came 

Fast nearing to the end. 

I watched it as a friend will watch 

Beside a dying friend — 

I could not speak, I could not stir. 

But like a statue there, 

I whiffed the smoky volume / 

Of that divhie cigar. 

At length the pile of ashes fell 

Like a child from a mother torn. 

And the smoke that I drew in and out 

Grew warm and yet more warm. 

I took one last, one lingering" whiff — 

A long whiff of despair — spare the tale — > 

I threw it from me. 

It was my last cigar. 



'!(> Old Salem Scrap Book 



I've seen tlie land of all I love 

Fade in the distance dim — 

And siglied above the blighted heart 

Where once proud hope had been. 

P»iit now I felt a thrill 

Wliich could with no other compare, 

When off the blue Canaries 

I smoked my last cigar. 

LESSON IN PEABODY MUSEmr 

'■Two jDassenger pigeons. The specie now extinct." 

So said the man of business, who is also a student of 
nature, as he looked at the display of birds in Peabody 
^Museum. 

"Handsome, aren't they?"' lie went on. "Of ancient 
ancestry, too. llemember tlie dove that Noah sent forth 
from the ark. 

"Millions of them were in early America. Flocks of 
them were so big they cast shadows like clouds. It took 
a day for one of the larger flocks to fly over a village.- 

"In one year a billion passenger pigeons were sold in 
the food markets of New York. 

"After that they vanished. No man has seen one since 
in this nation. The record stands time's test since 1885. 
"Yet I like the legend that the last of the passenger 
pigeons took to the wing and flew to a great wilderness 
in the north where they now abide. 

"It may be, perhaps you will agree, that w^e need more 
trees and woods and to shelter our featured citizens." 

V TWO SALTONSTALLS 

Hon. Leverett Saltonstall became Salem's first mayor 
when Salem started as a city in 1836. 

The ])resent Hon. Leverett Saltonstall is a U. S. Senator. 

FIRST SALEM PRINTER 
Young Samuel Hall set up a printing press in Salem 
in 1768, and on it printed "The Salem Gazette," which was 
the first news])aper in Salem and one of the first in 
America. 



Otj) Salkm Sc'rai> I)()()K 'M 



\'V WAS C0FFE1<], NOT PEPPER 
'•Most likelx you never heard the story of how Capt. 
r.enj. Cidw iiinsliield broiig-ht home coifee instead of pep- 
per. I'm i-ein'nuled of it each time I drink the ^SFoc'lia & 

So tlu' Talkative (iiiide said to tlie Inquisitive \'isitor 
as tliey took luncii iti the g'arden of the House of Seven 
(iables. after a \vall< about historic Salem. 

'V\\e \isitor opened his mouth to drink and liis ears to 
listen. The (iuide opened his mouth and began liis story. 

••| had the tale from my g-randsir. Tom Steadybreeze 
was he called, ^'ou may judg-e that lie was a reliable 
mail.' 

"\\ lu II a slip of a boy, not much more that twelve, 
Tom sailed as cabin boy on the America, of the Crownin- 
shield fleet. 

••('apt. Henj. ("rowninshield took the America out of 
Salem harboi". which you now see spread before 3'ou. He 
had ortlers to bi-ing back a cargo of pepper, it being that 
then old Salem was 'The Pepper Port' of the nation. It 
was in the year of 1804. Old Capt. Crowninshield, the 
head of the house, had warned Capt. Benj. not to break 
orders this time, like he had done before. 

'"The America made a quick voyage around Cape of 
(iood Hope — no Suez canal then, you know — and x^ut in 
t(» the lie de Bourbon which is in lat. 22-5 3 ; long". o.'j-^O 
in case \<»u \vish to look it up on the map. 

'•(apt. Benj. went ashore to g-et news of trade. He 
heard that pepper was scarce and hig-h on the i^epfjer 
coast, while coffee was x)lenty and cheap in Arabia. 

"He had orders to bring back pei)per. But he decided 
to load coflee and, so deciding-, he made ready his long- 
guns and got up small arms and ammunition, because he 
had to run the pirates' blockade to g-et to port and load 
coffee. 

'"Some months later, the look outs on Baker's island, 
the out])ost of old Salem harbor, were surprised to make 
out the America headed for the main ship channel weeks 
})efoi-e she was expected. 



82 ()t-1) SALp:^r Sckap Book 



"Tliey sent the news to Salem. Old Capt. C'rowniiisliield 
coukl scarcely believe it. Nor could others. 

"A group started down the harbor on a small boat to 
learn the what and why of the news. "It must be" said 
one solemnly "that Capt. Benj. has broken orders again." 

"Another snitfed the air, brightened up, rubbed his nose 
and sniffed again. "I think I smell coffee" said lie liope- 
fully. 

"Others sniffed and they also hopefully spoke of coft'ee. 

"The old Capt., after a bit of sniffing, shouted through 
his speaking trumpet. "What's your cargo?" 
X "It doesn't smell like pejiper, does it?" replied <"apt. 
Benj., Yankee wise. 

"I smell coffee, not pepper" the old Capt. roared. •"IVll 
me quick what you've got beh)w or I'll tan your hide." 

"Coffee from Arabia" yelled Capt. Benj. "The old Capt. 
and friends, cheered. That puzzled Capt. Benj. lie hatl 
coffee for a cargo, not pepper as he had been told. 

"The long and short of it" concluded the Guide, "is that 
soon after Capt. Benj. sailed the America out of Salem, 
the bottom dropped out of tlie pepper market on account 
of large supplies, while coffee became scarce and soared 
in price. The America's cargo was sold to Dutch coffee 
traders at a profit of $100,000. 

"Grandsir got his share of the profit, to be sure. But 
he had a puzzled mind. He couldn't figure out if it was 
seamen's luck, or seamen's judgment, that earned the 
profit. 

The Visitor thought it over a moment and then said. 
"May be it was both. Some men are born under a lucky 
star, you know. And there's an old adage or t%vo about 
the man who grabs opportunity by the forelock and rides 
on the tide of fortune." 

THE OLD FERRY 

A ievvy was early started between Salem and .Nrail)le- 
head and continued until after the Revolution. 

The ferry landing in Salem was at the foot of Turner's 
lane, about where the House of Seven Gables now stands. 



OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 2 



FRED A. GANNON 



Horse and Bu^gy Sayings 

The Steam Wagon 

Tke First Printing Press 

Miscellany 




GOING TO RIDE ON A PLEASANT SUMMER AFTERNOON 



Printed ty Newcoml) & Gauss Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for the 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGratL, President 



OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 2 



FRED A. GANNON 



Horse ana Bug^y Sayings 

Trie Steam Wa^on 

Tke First Printing Press 

Miscellany 




GOING TO RIDE ON A PLEASANT SUMMER AFTERNOON 



Printed by Newcomb & Gauss Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

ror tne 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGratL, President 




SAMUEL HALL USED A PRINTING PRESS LIKE 

THIS WHICH WAS USED BY ISIAH THOMAS 

IN WORCESTER 

Courtesy of The Essex Institute 



Old Saleai Scrap Book 



HORSE AND BUGGY SAYINGS 
IN OLD SALEM 

Words cliang-e with wagons. Each new mode of 
travel brings its new mode of speech. Sayings of 
horse and buggy days, familiar to old timers, may 
be strangers to youngsters of modern traffic. 

Words are symbols of changes in American life, 
like flint lock muskets, grandfather clocks, women's 
shoes and men's hats. We offer a few sayings of 
the good old (and dusty) horse and buggy days. 

'^Git up" started the horse. ^'Whoa" stopped him. 

Now we "step on the starter'' and say nothing, 
unless the engine doesn't turn over. 

One talked to a horse, and gave him a lump of 
sugar. But who gives an apple to the engine, or 
talks to the car, — or to a traffic officer ? 

"Gee" turned the horse. We said "haw" to the 
ox. The equine had a "nigh" side, also an "off side." 
Now "off side" is of football. 

"Hold your horses ! The elephants are coming." 
That was the cry on circus day. 

Alas and Alack! Circus parades are no more. 
Some freight trucks are as big as elephants. 

"Stop, Look & Listen" said the warning sign at 
the railroad crossing. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



''Red Light" is the sign on the motor car boule- 
vard. 

"Sunday drivers" troubled Dr. Bentlej, pastor of 
the East church, in 1811. 

"In the Devil's chariot there they go" exclaimed 
a cleric of 1911 as he saw his flock motoring to the 
woods instead of sitting in the pews. 

"Get along" said the driver to urge his horse to 
speed. 

Now the chauffeur "steps on the gas" to acceler- 
ate the car. 

"Going to ride" was said when one climbed into 
the buggy for a leisurely journey on an afternoon. 

"Joy ride" is the term for the motor trip over a 
week end. 

The horse was "a hay motor." The auto is "the 
gas buggy," ''the kerosene car," "the flivver" or "the 
boat" though its not aquatic yet. 

"You can lead a horse to water but you can't 
make him drink." So it was said of an effort made 
in vain. 

"Like putting the cart before the horse" was said 
when things were wrong end to. 

"Like locking the door after the horse was stolen" 
was remarked of happenings that followed lack of 
caution. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



The wrastrel, of horse and buggy days, '^sewed 
his wild oats." 

His successor ''burns up the gas." 

The ancestors of both ''trotted on shank's mare." 

A nightmare is a bad dream, often due to digestion 
kicking up — but not as painful as a kick from a 
horse, or a mule. 

Who has met the man "as stubborn as a mule ?" or, 
he who "laughed like a horse V' 

"A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse" 
exclaimed the thespian Shakespearian. 

"A coach and four" was a dream of affluence. Its 
counterpart is "two cars in one garage." 

The farmer looked at the good horse and said 
"he's worth his oats." 

"Don't change horses in the middle of the stream" 
was of farmers' wisdom. It's a slogan of politics. 

"Between hay and grass" was the equivalent of 
betwixt and between — sometimes "between Satan and 
the sea." 

"The horse goes steady by jerks" said the farmer 
as Old Dobbin jogged along at variable speeds. 

"The car has got the jitters" exclaimed the chauf- 
feur as the automobile went along with a wheeze, 
a rattle and a tremor. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



"Show liim your heels" said the driver of the 
trotter as he drove his fast steed by the plodder. 

''We'll give him our dust" said the operator of 
the racing car as he passed the auto that was just 
rambling along. 

''Back seat driver" is a familiar remark, sometimes 
apt, and again not so apt. 




^-^•5=:,%.-^- 



A KNIGHT OF THE REINS DRIVES A FAST STEPPER 

The farmer, in like circumstances said — "Two 
heads are better than one, even if one is a sheep's 
head." 

"As frisky as a colt" was said of a gay young 
person. 

"As big as a horse" was remarked of the young 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



^'It fits like a horse collar" said the man who 
bought the coat too big. 

^'He stands without hitching" was remarked of a 
steady going ])erson not likely ''to kick over the 
traces." 

''He has horse sense" was the comment on a per- 
son of level head. 

"As big as a barn door" was an expression for 
large size. 

"Don't look a gift horse in the mouth." That 
meant not to be too critical of the birthday cigars or 
necktie. 

A youngster of motor car days, put it "Don't look 
a gift horse in the face." 

The automobile dealer "always looks under the 
hood." 

"x\s sharp as a boss trader" often was said in days 
of old. 

"The junk dealer" is the term that's applied to 
the dealer who sold the motor car that didn't turn 
out to be what he said it was. 

"A plug" was a horse old and decrepit. ]N'ow "a 
plug" is "a boost" which some take to be a bid for 
popularity. 

"The horse has cast his shoe" So it was said. And 
some people picked up the shoe for luck. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



^Tlat tire'' is now exclaimed when the rubber shoe 
"blows out." Hard luck. But nobody picks up an 
automobile shoe as a token of fortune's favor. 




FIXING A TIRE IN STAGE COACH TIMES 



To see a red headed girl driving a white horse 
was a sign of luck almost as good as picking up a 
horse shoe. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



"For want of a nail the race was lost/' Those 
were words of caution. 

'Tor lack of oil the engine over heated." So goes 
the modern saying. 

''Give the horse his reins and he'll find the way 
home." The old saying was of the horse sense age. 
"Out of gas" is the motor car excuse for not getting 
home on time. 

"Food for man and beast" was the sign that the 
hospitable landlord put on his tavern. 

"Hot dogs" is the sign on the road side stand of 
the present. 

"Distance lends enchantment to the view" said the 
rider in the horse and buggy. 

The descriptive ciculars of this touring age laud 
the lanscape to the limit. But who sees it when go- 
ing a mile a minute? 

"Jingle bells. Jingle bells." That was the re- 
frain of the song of the sleigh ride — also of the col- 
lege glee club. 

"Honk the horn" may be the song of the motor 
car. Who sings when speeding in an automobile ? 

"Old Dobbin" was a common name for horses. 
There was a thousand and one others. 

Beach wagons have their names, and so do air- 
planes. But no motor vehicle comes when called by 
name as does a horse. 



10 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



Fisherman caught the horse mackerel, which isn't 
a sea horse. The fishermen and sportsmen now catch 
the tuna which is the old horse mackerel by a new 
name. 




A PEACEFUL RIDE ALONG A PLEASANT ROAD 



Horse liniment was ^'good for man and beast." At 
least some kinds were. 

''Horse doctor" was a proper term for a medical 
man who treated four footed beasts, but wasn't proper 
to the doctor who treated the two footed animal. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 11 

The newspapers keep oil using ''horse" and here 
and there are men who applied themselves to "the 
saw horse." 

''Thank you niarms." When the buggy bounces 
over a hole in the highway, the driver, or passenger, 
exclaimed "thank you, marm." 

"Frost heaves/' When Jack Frost came out of 
the pavement, after long winter, he sometimes raised 
pillow like elevations on the surface. These were 
called "frost heaves." 

"He drives like a sailor." That was often re- 
marked of the awkward driver. Also "he rides like 
a sailor." 

"A sewing horse." The saddler, or other stitcher 
of stout leather, including legs of boots, held his 
leather in clamps while he sewed his seams. The 
clamp were fitted to a horse, and the device was 
called "a sewing bourse." 

"Like locking the barn door after the horse was 
stolen" — a lack of precaution. "Safety first" is the 
modern version. 

The Boys of horse and buggy days knew the traces, 
the hames, the bridle, the collar, the surcingle and 
the whip stock, and the several parts of the buggy, 
the democrat wagon, the hay rick and the hack, also 
the brougham. 



12 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



The lads of today know the piston, the differential 
and the carburetor, also the fender and speedometer, 
and the multitude of devices of the traffic lights. 

So words change with wagons, parts and appur- 
tenances. We now end the story of horse and buggy 
words "put it out to pasture.'^ 




FIRE I FlREl THE PRANCING STEEDS ANSWER AN ALARM 



Old Salem Scrap Book 13 

CAPTAIN DERBY AND THE FIRST 
PRINTING PRESS 

^'Next/' said the Talkative Guide to the Inquisi- 
tive Visitor, "we'll walk along old Derby street, and 
see the house that Captain Richard Derby built.'' 

"Now, here we are. A handsome house, and a 
credit to craftsmen of 1762, is it not?" 

"Having seen it, inside and out, we'll sit ourselves 
here, and look along old Derby wharf and over the 
harbor, while I tell you of Captain Derby and the 
first printing press." 

"Perhaps the story will explain to you in part 
how you are now here as you are in the land of the 
free enterprise." 

"The Derbys, you know^, owned many ships and 
traded with many ports, competing with English and 
French ships in the commerce of the ocean." 

"The English seized Salem ships and impressed 
Salem seamen. Captain Derby didn't like it. He 
believed in freedom of the seas, also, freedom for 
the colonies." 

"By what chance Captain Derby bought a printing 
press, I know not. The circumstances would be well 
worth knowing, for it was an important event in 
the history of the nation, as my story will show." 

"Samuel Hall, the young man who managed this 



14 Old Salem Scrap Book 

press, learned the trade of printer, and editor, from 
the Franklins, of whom Benjamin was the wisest/' 

''This Hall published The Essex Gazette, starting 
in 1768. It was a small paper of but four sheets, 
and a great wonder to Salem folks who read a home 
town newspaper for the first time. Maybe later, 
we'll look at a copy of it in The Essex Institute." 

"The Gazette, in 1YT5 printed a story, about a 
column long, and on an inside page, about the battle 
of Lexington. Col. Timothy Pickering wrote it. I 
speak of him as the first pioneer American war cor- 
respondent." 

"Captain Richard read the story and told his son, 
Captain John, to get some copies of the Gazette and 
carry them to England as fast as ever he could drive 
a ship." 

"Captain John sailed the little Quero across the 
ocean in 29 days, passing the big Sukey of the 
British navy that had a four days start over him." 

"He delivered copies of the Gazette to friends of 
America in London, and swift spread news of the 
battle of Lexington. The stock market crashed. The 
Tories trembled. The brass hats said that the news 
couldn't be true. They asked the public to await 
the official despatches from Gen. Gage. When they 
tardily arrived they were compared with the story 
in the Gazette. The verdict was that the newspaper 



Old Salem Scrap Book 15 



had the true story of the famous battle, and the 
opinion was that the patriots had started to fight for 
freedom and independence." 

^Terhaps you may call Derby's feat a diplomatic 
victory. It was also*^ an instance of the power of the 
free press, then a new institution." 

^^Captain John Derby sailed the little Quero back 
to this harbor, before you. He brought news from 
London, which he delivered to Washington at Cam- 
bridge." 

''It was also the fortune of Captain Kichard to 
bring from France the news that a treaty of peace 
had been signed at Paris, and that by its terms the 
colonies had won liberty to shape their destiny ac- 
cording to their wisdom." 

''So, you see, this house in which Captain Derby 
built in 1762 is one of the cradles of the nation. As 
for the press that he set up in Salem, it was a be- 
ginning of the journalism which keeps us informed 
of the world and its ways." 

"With your permission, I'll add a word for young 
Samuel Hall, a founder of American journalism." 

"In telling of his plans, he said he purposed to 
'print items of the most useful knowledge to man- 
kind, tending to preserve and promote the liberty, 
happiness and welfare of civil society.' " 



16 Old Salem Scrap Book 

"He added a line about publications that — ^greatly 
tend to perpetuate the inestimable privilege of think- 
ing what we please and speaking what we think.' " 

"You may find the story in detail, in Salem Im- 
prints, which w^as written in 192Y, by Harriet Syl- 
vester Tapley.'' 

"So I conclude my story of Captain Derby and 
the first printing press." 




Old Salem Scrap Book 



17 



OLD SALEM STEAM WAGON 

A summer day of the gay nineties, Frank Cook 
drove a steam wagon along the dusty streets, and 
old Salem saw its first horseless carriage. 



limii" 




m 



FRANK COOK DRIVING SALEM'S FIRST HORSELESS CARRIAGE 



He steamed to the cattle show in Peabody. Farm- 
ers left their horses and oxen and ran to see the 
new wonder. Later, some bought trucks and tractors. 



18 Old Salem Scrap Book 

At six miles an hour the wagon wheeled over city 
pavements. ''Go no faster than a horse" said the 
chief of police. 

Old Dobbin snorted when the steam wagon came 
along. Young Bingo, the colt^ kicked up her heels, 
and headed for the woods. 

^'A carriage without horses goes. Mother Ship- 
ton's prophecy has come true at last/' so the old 
folks exclaimed. 

Hon. David M. Little built this steam wagon in 
his boat shop on a Salem wharf. The idea not orig- 
inal with him. 

JSTathan Read, the old Salem apothecary, invented 
" a land carriage" to be driven by "a portable steam 
boiler" soon after the Revolution. He built and 
operated a steamboat before Fulton. 

As for electricity, Col. David Mason, soldier of 
the French and Indian wars, experimented with that 
magic. He was an ancestor of Hon. David Mason 
Little, builder of the steam wagon of the gay nine- 
ties. 

Maybe mechanics of today could build a steam 
wagon, as did Mr. Little. Some of them have built 
little locomotives which they run on tracks behind 
Lester Friend's box factory in Danvers. 

This first steam wagon in old Salem had a little 
engine, of one cylinder, 2x4 in., a boiler of many 



r 




A GEMTLEMAM TAKSS HIS FRIENDS TO RIDE IN A "STEAMER" OF 1396 



20 Old Salem Scrap Book 

tiny tubes, a gasoline burner, and one tank of ten 
gallons of gasoline to make beat, and anotber of 30 
gallons of water to make steam. A matcb started tbe 
flame to getting up steam. Tbe driver opened tbe 
tbrottle to start tbe engine, steered it witb tbe left 
lever, reversed it witb tbe rigbt, and put bis foot 
on tbe brake to slow down and to stop. On tbe open 
road tbe vebicle steamed along at 35 miles an bour. 
!N'ot a traffic officer in sigbt, nor a stage coacb, or a 
traffic signal. Tbe flag in tbe w^bip socket an em- 
blem of American freedom, to be sure. 

Otbers of tbe period experimented witb motor 
transportation. Lucius Packard, w^beelwrigbt, built 
a borseless carriage. Josepb Foster, stage mecbanic 
of old Mecbanic Hall, designed a flying macbine 
and Zina Goodell built it. Some say it actually 
bopped up from Crocker & Brown's tan yards wbere 
it was tested. 

Old Salem saw its first steam wagon in tbe gay 
nineties. E"ow tbousands of automobiles dart along 
its streets, wbile overbead airplanes fly. Maybe for 
Bangor, or London or ]^ew Zealand. 

Wbo remembers tbe steam calliope ? 



Old Salem Scrap Book 21 

^TOP GOES THE WEASEL'' 

Youngsters of the gay nineties often sang with 
glee the melody of "Pop Goes The Weasel." Some 
made up lines to fit the music. All chorused with 
enthusiasm the words, "Pop Goes The Weasel." 

When grandmother was a girl, and went to dances 
in old Hamilton Hall, or perhaps to a party, she 
joined in singing a song like this : — 

"Queen Victoria's very sick, Napoleon's got the 

measles 
Sebastapool is won at last. Pop goes the weasel. 
All around the cobbler's house the monkey chased 

the people 
And after them in double haste Pop went the 
Weasel." 

When the night walks in as black as sheep 
And the hen and her eggs are fast asleep 
When in to her nest a serpent creeps, Pop goes the 
Weasel. 

Of all the dance that ever was plann'd 

To galvanize the heel and hand 

There's none so gay as Pop goes the Weasel." 



22 Old Salem Scrap Book 



SCHOOL MASTER'S WIT 

The school master, not too serious, sent the school 
boy to the library for the book about Adam's grand- 
father. 

HAWTHORNE'S EXPLANATION 

An inquisitive man asked Hawthorne, soon after "The 
Scarlet Letter" was published, if he really found the 
letter in the old Custom house. 

Hawthorne looked him in the eye and said : — "Well, 
I did have it. But one Sunday, when I and my wife were 
at church, the children found it and burned it up." 

COLLECTOR'S LUCK 

Ephriam Miller walked along- Derby street on his way 
to the U. S. Custom House where his father had his office 
as Collector of the Port of Salem. Gen. James Miller, 
the collector, was "The Hero of the Battle of Lundy's 
Lane." 

As he walked along Ephriam saw a woman brushing- a 
rug in her yard. He stopped, looked at the rug, and 
said "A handsome rug, is it not?" The lady replied." It's 
handsome, sir. But it's too large for our parlor." 
Ephriam looked with increasing admiration, and remarked 
"It's a very handsome rug." The lady agreed and then 
told in a neighborly way, it being that the Millers lived 
nearby — "My husband brought it home as a souvenir of his 
first voyage. He bought it in an old shop in Malta. It's 
handsome, as you say, but it's too large for our parlor." 
Ephriam looked once more at the rug and said — "If you'll 
let me have the rug, you maj^ have a carpet to fit your 
parlor. Go to Mr. Downing's store, and chose any carpet 
you wish, tell Mr. Downing to send the bill and I'll step 
into Mr. Downing's store and pay for it." 



Old Salem Scrap Book 23 



Ephriam carried the rug- to the Custom House where 
it was spread in Gen. Miller's office, and admired by all 
who saw it. The leg-end, according- to Miss Silsbee's 
"Half a Century In Old Salem," is that the rug was 
identified as a tapestry of the Raphael "Feed My Sheep 
design, and that it was sold to a cathedral in Canada. 

THE DEACON'S PECULIARITY 

Deacon Henry Morton sold shoes. Deacon Asa Hood 
sold hats. They met on Essex street one day, and talked 
of trade and men. 

"Remember," Deacon Morton, said the hatter, "all men 
have their peculiarities." 

To this Deacon Morton replied — "Indeed, I have no 
peculiarities." 

The hatter said "And that Deacon Morton, is your 
peculiarity." 

EARTH SHOOK. HOOPS SHRUNK 

Of an early earthquake an elder penned these brief 
lines : — 

"Greater than ever before known here was the earth- 
quake of 17155. 

"Bells jangled. 

"Clocks stopped. 

"Chimneys toppled. 

"Stone walls tumbled. 

"The timid trembled. 

"Some hurried to church. 

"One strange consequence was a reduction in the cir- 
cumference of hoops worn by ladies." 

OLD SALEM GLACIER 

A glacier glided over old Salem 50,000 years and more 
ago, leaving huge boulders here and there, and making 
great marks on the ledges of Mack part, as proof of the 
vast and uncontrollable x^owers of nature. 



24 Old Salem Scrap Book 



THE TOWN GUNNER 

Samuel Sharp was town gnnner near 300 years ago. 
He lived by the fort, and had charge of its weapons, 
whatever they may have been. The fort was westerly 
of Town House Square, perhaps between the present 
Y. M. C. A. and the old Witch House. 

AN $8 BILL 

"Lost — Near Steam's store, an $8 bill. Finder may 
have $2 of it." Salem advertisement of 1803. 

ELECTRIC LAIVIPS 

Prof. Moses Farmer lighted an electric lamp, on bat- 
tery current, in his house on Pearl street in about 1850, 
and people came from far and wide to look upon the new 
wonder. 

Salem's streets were lighted by electricity for the first 
time on the evening of Dec. 20, 1881. The electricity was 
generated in the new station of the Salem Electric Light 
Co. then new. They "burned with great brilliancy" and 
crowds turned out to look upon this new wonder. 

Now Sylvania and Hytron make millions of electric 
lamps and tubes. 




A FOOT NOTE 



OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 3 



FRED A. GANNON 



Ye Honorame Boarde 

Si^ns ana Portents 

First Elepkant Boy 

Miscellany 



X a'^ -:v 



SIGN OF "THE WITCH CITY 



Printed by Newcomb & Gauss Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for tne 

Salem Bool^s Co., M. F. McGratli, President 



OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 3 



FRED A. GANNON 



Ye Honoratle Boarde 

Signs ana Portents 

First Elepnant Boy 

Miscellany 



^■■■■■BnHiMMilHBmMMI 
SIGN OF '"THE WITCH CITY' 



Printed Ly Newcomb & Gauss Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Maes. 

ror tne 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGratk, President 



Old Salem Sckap Book: 



YE HO]SrOKABLE BOARDE 

Let's turn time back to the happy nineties, and 
join with Ye Honorable Boarde at supper, and in 
''the flow of soul and feast of reason" that followed 
after. 

A program, saved from time's wreckage, tells us 
of today about the good cheer, sparkling wit and 
stirring music of the occasion. 

''Here shall we meet, and here good cheer afford. 
And sing thy praises, 0, Blustrious Boarde." 



Honors^tk 



After this spirited salutation came "The Battle 
Hymn of the Republic," with the admonition — "Let 
every man sing as he never sang before." 

"May the hinges of Ye Boarde's hospitality never 
creak." 




5?'M- 






OFFICERS OF YE HONORABLE BOARDE 

William D. Dennis, Perpetual Sccretary—Seth Currier, 
Chief Justice— Ferry Collier, Perpetual President seated 

from left to rig-ht ; James M. Mulhig, Chancelor of the 

Ex-Chequer, standing. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



So spoke the members as they sat down to supper — 
always supper, the good old Yankee term, and never 
banquet. 

'The Committee of the Interior" reported, and 
presented the vast array of food at $1 per ticket. 

''Let's strive mightily, but eat as friends." 

That was for "rivals in business," and those who 
"fought tooth and nail" in politics. "Happy we be 
here together eating and talking." 

With each course an apt line, from the classics, 
or local learning — 

"I smell it, upon by life it will do." 

That for food of sweet odor. And for a dish per- 
haps not so appetizing, the line — 

"I would rather have a handful of split peas." 

With the pies the line — 

"May we never be done so much as to make us 
crusty." 

And with the coffee — 

"Take a cup for ould lang syne." 

"The Cook in Ordinary and Purveyor in Extra- 
ordinary" was haled before Ye Honorable Boarde, 
and his praises were sung. 

Then the report of the committee on speakers 
rated, in the wise and witty nineties, as more im- 
portant than the report of The Committee on the 
Interior. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



''I wonder if the Lion be to speak. No wonder, 
my lord, one Lion may, when many asses do." 

After that preliminary, the chairman exclaimed : 
"O, for a Forty parson power.'' 

And later reminded the speakers of the rule — 

''Board limit 10 minutes. Extra charge for over- 
time." 

And to harass the lawyer, the chairman repeated 
the conumdrum — 

''Why is a lawyer like a restless sleeper ? Because 
he is first on one side and then on the other." 

And for the final sparkle of wit the line — 

"O, there has been such a throwing about of 
brains." 

Then the song — "There are smiles that make us 
happy," and, last of all and v/ith patriotic fevor — 
"My'^Country, 'tis of thee. 
Sweet land of liberty." 

So it was with wise and witty men of the happy 
nineties. 

Alas, and Alack! The like of them will not be 




Old Salem Scrap Book 



"WHY IS A HEN^' 

"Dick'' Larrok, "The Silent Cobbler" sat on his 
bench mending shoes. Arguments of his friends, 
loitering in his shop, annoyed him. So up he spoke, 
and said : — 

"I've a question for you to argue over." 
"What may it be," asked one. 

"Why is a hen ?" said "Dick." 

The question, which is wisest never answered, be- 
come the slogan of Ye Honorable Boarde. 

SIGNS AND PORTENTS 

Do you believe in signs and portents ? 
The answer doesn't matter. 

The chances are nine in ten that in the morning 
you will look at signs of the weather — 

And take care not go out without your umbrella. 



^ 



Later, walking to work, if you should spy a penny, 
you'll pick it up for luck — or a horse shoe. 

At noon, if 13 are counted round the lunch table, 
would you stay and eat, or depart ? 

And what of being the third to light a cigarette 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



from one match ? Or under a ladder ? Or across 
the path of a black cat ? 

At the evening card game does the luck run north 
and south, or east and west ? Why does the opponent 
hold all the good cards ? 

While strolling an evening walk, do you look at 
the new moon over the right or the left shoulder as 
a sign of money to come to your pocket ? 

Or to see if the new moon be wet or dry ? Or for 
your lucky star ? 

If the good night glimpse into the mirror dis- 
covers another gray hair or two, do you remark that 
''Gray is becoming/' or quote that ''Gray cools heads 
once given to hot contention ?" 

Do you sleep north of south, or east and west ? 
Seamen of old Salem slept head to the North Pole 
so as to pick up its magnetic currents. 

If you go fishing, do you carry a token of luck ? 




Do we believe in signs and portents ? Or do w^e 
not ? 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



BIKDS AS SIGNS 

We l(x>k for the first robin as a sign of spring. 
The old New England custom, you know. 

Shadowy is the reputation of the ground hog as 
a weather forecaster, is it not ? 

Geese flying south are a sign of winter beyond 
a doubt. 

The crow of the rooster signals the coming of 




dawn — the alarm clock down on the farm. 

The caw of the crow may be a sign of a storm — 
or a signal from a scout that breakfast is ready way 
down yonder in the corn field. 

What of the wisdom of the owl ? How is it that 
the birds know as much as they do ? 

SIGNS SENTIMENTAL 

Grandmother picked a four leaf clover, as did her 
grandmother. So does sweet 16 of today. 

What high hopes of the maid who catches the 
bride's bouquet ? 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



Isn't it true that the bride wears something blue — 
And that rice and confetti is thrown upon her for 
luck ? 

What son of old Erin would not kiss the Blarney- 
stone — or a pretty lass? 

How long since anybody has seen "a true lover's 
knot/' even on Valentine's day? 

Actors keep old shoes for luck — and on life's stage 
every man plays his part. 




DOOR SIGIvrS 

All good citizens put their names, and street num- 
bers on their doors, as tokens of good will, also, to 
save time and trouble for the postman. 

Who remembers the ^'Welcome" sign on door mats 
of years not long gone ? 

A pineapple, carved from wood, above the door 
was a sign of hospitality in old Salem homes. 



10 



Old Salem Scrap Book 




A bunch of grapes, also of wood, was a sign of 
hospitality at the tavern. "Shall I not take mine 
ease at mine inn'^ — a familiar sign in old time 
taverns. 

The Witch House In Gas Lamp Years. Signs were 
tacked on to the post of the town pump. 

A public bulletin board for legal notices is on the 
side of City Hall. Do you know where ? 



Old Salem Scrap Book 11 

A clergyman, of good wit, put a sign 'The Grind- 
ery" on the door of his study, — and on the guest 
room of his home a sign ''Saint's Rest." 

A button, perhaps carved from "whale ivory" once 
was placed by the door when the house was com- 
plete, and the bills all paid. One in the Pingree 
house. 

WHAT ABOUT THESE \ 

Who reads dream books — or goes to the astrologer, 
the fortune teller, the palm reader — or she who read 
the leaves in the bottom of the tea cup ? 

Who says, when the motor car balks, "the grem- 
lyns have got into the engine." The pesky creatures 
also get into typewriters, and mince pies, do they 
not ? Also newspapers and tax returns. 

The world has changed its ways, but has it 
changed its luck ? 

The watch charm vanished when the time keeper 
was transferred from the vest pocket to the wrist. 

Don't neglect the traffic signs. 

Who seeks the smiles of Lady Luck? Who'se 
afraid of The Jinxs ? 



12 



Old Salem Scrap Book 





THE $ 



Trade goes bj the sign of the dollar, also by the 
\ worth of the trade mark on goods. 

The $ sign, it's told, was once ^TLS.'' meaning 
United States currency. Clerks of quill pen times 
wrote the U. over the S. and, later, cut off the bot- 
tom of the U and so had $. 

$ $ $ 

What's a dollar worth today? 
SIGNS THAT HAVE PASSED 
The red head comes merrily along. But where's 
the white horse ? So we ask, remembering that, back 
in horse and buggy days, to see a red headed girl 
and a white horse was a sign of good luck. 

The fire wagons come racing along, and the lad- 
der truck reminds us that '^to see a wagon load of 
ladder is a sure sign of rain." 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



13 



'T was told, in kitchen stove times, that — 
''If the wife leaves a cover lifter on a hot stove, 
it's a sure sign she'll have a cross husband. But gas 
ranges have no covers, not cover lifter either, and 
so fewer cross husbands. 





^... -1 :,S OF OLD TOWX HOUSE SQUARE 

^'Break a mirror. Shatter your luck." So it was 
said in years when mirrors were few and far be- 
tween. 'Now every vanity case has it's little mirror, 
for better or worse, usually for the better, is it not ? 



14 Old Salem Scrap Book 

^'See a new moon through glass, and you'll have 
bad luck until comes another new moon/' 

That's another old saving — ^but now, alas and 
alack, millions now wear spectacles. 

SIGmNG OFF 

Who has the secret signs of the lodge which are 
emblems of fellowship and charity ? 

Or the keys that are signs of scholarship ? 

Who is not thrilled by national emblem, the sign 
of patriotism. 

Who has knowledge of the mystic signs that are 
beacons in the mystery of life ? 

Who is not cheered by the familiar greeting that 
is a sign of friendship ? 

Do we believe in signs ? Or do we not ? 

THE FIRST ELEPHANT BOY 

^Tirst time I've seen that little elephant," ex- 
claimed The Talkative Guide to The Inquisitive 
Visitor, as he pointed to a small stone figure above 
a door in Peabody Museum. 

''Cute little fellow, isn't he? Must be an idol 
from India. Folks once worshipped stone images, 
you know, and had strange notions. 

''Some said the world was flat, and rested on the 
back of an elephant, who stood on a turtle — but what 



Old Salem Sckap Book 15 



the turtle stood on nobody told. 

'^However, I haven't yet figured what keeps this 
world spinning in space as it does. Have you? 

'^Strange to tell/' The Guide went on, ^'that little 
elephant reminds me of my ancestor Ezra who 
claimed to be the first elephant boy in America. I'll 
spin the yard to you as we walk about the Museum. 

''Ezra sailed on the American for India in 1798. 
He was cabin boy— a stout lad of a little more than 
12, and in India he helped Capt. Crowninshield to 
load cargo, including the little elephant that the 
Captain bought in Bengal. 

''On the home voyage, Ezra and the elephant be- 
come good friends. Ezra doused the elephant with 
water in the heat of the tropics. Sometimes the ele- 
phant picked up Ezra and swung him in his trunk 
as if he were rocking him to sleep. As for the 
elephant he slept leaning up against the mast. 

"News that an elephant was on its way spread fast 
around the old town. Folks flocked to see the wonder 
like people crowded the streets to see Barnum's cir- 
cus parade when I was a boy. 

":Nobody in America had ever seen an elephant 
before, excepting sailors who had been to India and 
Africa. Smairboys were thrilled. They told one 
another how, when they grew up, they were going 
to be sailors and see the world and its wonders. 



16 Old Salem Scrap Book 

''Even the scholarly Dr. Bentley got excited. How- 
ever, he didn't neglect to view the elephant, and to 
make notes about him for the records, which I'll 
show you later. 

"It was, let me tell you, a great day when the 
elephant, the first in America, came to town. The 
young, the old, and the betwixt and between crowded 
round to see the elephant perform. 

"And right in the midst of it was my ancestor 
Ezra, the first elephant boy in America. However, 
he counted that no feather in his cap. He said he 
was only cabin boy for Capt. Crowninshield. 

"As for Capt. Crowninshield, Ezra said that 
though he was captain of a ship, president of a bank 
and a member of Congress, yet the best thing he did 
was to bring an elephant to America and make chil- 
dren happy. 

"And I suppose," concluded the Guide, "that mak- 
ing the rising generation wiser, as well as happier, 
is the best thing a mortal can do." 

"LET WELL ENOUGH ALONE" 

"Billy" Edwards, a small man, was a powerful 
mover, as were his father and his grandfather. 

These Edwards moved buildings large and small. 
"Billy" once moved a chimney tall. A wit chal- 
lenged him to move a well. "Billy" replied — "Let 
well enough alone." 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



17 





ANECDOTES OF OLD SALEM 

'^Choose anecdote with caution, 
Tell them with discretion 
To honor, not to smirch, reputation." 

The Old School Master. 

THE "SUILL" HAIR CUT 

This anecdote comes down from the court records 
of 1637:— 

''John Gatchell is fined ten shillings for border- 
ing (trespassing) upon the Town's grounds without 
leave, and in case he shall cut the long hair of his 
head to a suill (civil) length, shall have abated 
five shillings of his fine.'' 

A BOWDITCH AISTECDOTE 

Bowditch, the mathematician, early went to sea 
as did other youth of old Salem. A foe loomed up. 
The captain, making ready to defend his ship, 



18 Old Salem Scrap Book 

ordered young Bowditch to pass powder. ^'Powder 
monkey'' was the old title. 

Tlie captain made the rounds to see that all was 
ready for a fight. He found young Bowditch sit- 
ting on top of one powder keg, and figuring higher 
mathematics on the head of another keg. 

EIGHT "JIMS" 

In the Newhall family (Lynn branch) eight had 
the name of James. To tell one from t'other a nick- 
name was bestowed on each, these: — 

''President Jim/' ''Doctor Jim," ":N'athan's Jim," 
"Squire Jim," "Phithisicy Jim," "Silver Jim," and 
"Increase Jim." 

We lack the eighth — perhaps it was plain "Jim." 

LINES, KHYMES AND RECOKDS 

Roger Conant, who came over in 1626, looked at 
the storm and said — 

"The biggest snow storm ever I saw." 

His Indian friend said — 

"We had bigger storms when I was a boy." 

"SUNDAY WINDOWS" 

As late as the gay nineties, storekeepers locked up 
Saturday night, drew the curtains across their show 
windows, and kept them there until Monday morn- 
ins:. 



Old Salem Sckap Book 19 

FILENE IN" SALEM 

William Filene had a store in the Bowker block 
on Essex Street in 1855. The Filene family lived 
in a house on Brown Street. In recent years, one of 
the Eilene's, merchants of Boston, visited the old 
home and said he would give his fortune to hear the 
rain on the roof as in boyhood. 




The anchor, emblem of Seamen of old Salem. 




Clark & Friend's trade mark for 50 vears. 



20 Old Salem Scrap Book 

'^INVEST THE HOUKS" 

''Take time to read — it's the source of wisdom. 
''Take time to play — its a way to keep bouyant. 
Take time to look — it's a means to safety. 
Take time to think — it's a way to peace." 

From an old Salem scrap hook. 

SOUP, 10 CEISTTS 

Beef steak — 25 cents. 
Oyster stew, 15 cents. 
Soup or chowder, 10 cents. 
Pie or pudding, 5 cents. 
Tea or coffee, 5 cents. 

Holly Tree Inn advertisement of 1876. 

THE CLOCK'S EXAMPLE 

In side the door of a tall clock that grandfather 
once wound up are these lines : — 

"I serve thee here with all my might 
To tell the time both day and night. 
Therefore example take from me 
And serve thy God with all thy might." 



Old Salem Sckap Book 21 



A GOOD LISTENEK 

"I tarried with Mr. Winthrop & amused myself 
witli his rich and engaging conversation on all in- 
teresting subjects." 

Dr. Bentley, 1793. 

"SWEET MEMOKIES" 

"I sometimes fancy that my brain must be brim- 
ful of small photographs, such vivid pictures rise 
to view when I am sitting alone and thinking, as old 
folks do." 

Miss Silsbee 




OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 4 

FRED A. GANNON 

Our City Hall That Uncle Sam Paid For 
Active Ancients of The Nineties 
The Indian Deed and Miscellany 




OLD BAKERY 

PrinteJ hy NewcomL & GausB Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for tke 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGratlj, Preeiclent 




mmmmmsmmmm 



OLD SALEM SCRAP BOOK 

No. 4 



FRED A. GANNON 



Our City Hall That Uncle Sam Paid For 
Active Ancients of The Nineties 
The Indian Deed and Miscellany 




OLD BAKERY 



Printed ty Newcomb & Gauss Co. 

in City Hall Square, Salem, Mass. 

for tne 

Salem Books Co., M. F. McGratk, President 



Old Salem Sckap Book 



OLD SALEM'S CITY HALL 

City Hall — the American eagle over the door, 
and the American flag above — the people's hall. 




THE CITY HALL 
THAT UNCLE SAM PAID FOE 

Each citizen may seek office in City Hall. It's 
an American right. 

Each citizen may go to City Hall and speak his 
mind about municipal affairs. It's an American 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



duty, perhaps more honored in the breach than the 
observance. Torpid attention to government is a 
peril to city, state and nation. 

To City Hall go citizens to get a license to marry, 
to record a birth, or death, to obtain a permit to 
build a house or factory, and to ask about schools,, 
public health, streets, parks, fire departments, etc. 

And there's also the task of paying taxes to the 
city collector so that he may pay the public bills. 

In our City Hall are the public records of three 
centuries, a gallery of portraits of our foremost men 
and the Indian deed by which the forefathers bought 
from the Indians, for 50 pounds, all property with- 
in the municipal bounds. 

Uncle Sam paid for our City hall, when he dis- 
tributed a surplus of the U. S. treasury. That's 
unique. It's also unique for the U. S. treasury to 
have a surplus. 

This Hall, built in 1838, is of huge blocks of 
granite. It looks strong enough to stand for as long 
as the Pyramids. 

But, remember, that the spirit of it will endure for 
only as long as citizens maintain the ideals of Ameri- 
can government. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



THE INDIAI^ DEED 

In our City Hall is The Indian Deed by which 
the I^aumkeags conveyed their real estate to Salem 
settlement. A sound and lawful document, and one 
of the oldest of its kind. It's dated 1686. 

By it, the Indians transferred to the white men 
all lands within bounds of the town, and water, too, 
and all above and all below said land and water. 

The price was 50 pounds in English money. It 
was a lot of cash for those times. 




The Indians, going west to live where land was 
free and vast, sold out to the settlers. 

The deed is written on parchment, perhaps is an 
ancient piece of leather and continues in good condi- 
tion. It was written with quill pens. But how was 
made the ink thats clear and legible after 200 years 
and more ? 

Some Indians signed their names, and others 
signed with their marks — not an "X" like the famil- 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



iar mark of today, but a mark apt and picturesque, 
like a peace pipe, a samp bowl, a beaver, an eagle 
or a bow and arrow. 

Some of the names were bard to spell. For in- 
stance — 

Israel Quannopbkownatt — 

David Nonnuphannohow — 

Thomas Vsoyekussennum — 

Cicely Pataghuncksq — 

Yawata, daughter of Nanapashment, which seems 
to show that Indian women had rights in property. 

When an agent of King James came over, look- 
ing for choice pieces of property to claim for the 
Crown, the settlers said to him: — 

^^You can not have Salem settlement. The land 
is ours. We bought it from the Indians and paid 
them for it.'' 

However, it took the War of the Revolution to 
prove the rights of the ancestors to the property they 
bought from the Indians, and improvements on it. 



►►M»Hf< 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



OLD SALEM ICE 

''Any ice today?'' 

Who recalls the cry of the ice man of the gay 
nineties ? 




OLD SALEM ICE WAGON OF THE GAY NINETIES 



Some asked for a five cent piecCj and others for a 
ten cent piece. The ice man cut it from a big block, 
brushed it, and washed it, grabbed it with his tongs 
and carried it to the ice chest in the kitchen. 

What a laborious task as compared with the pres- 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



ent method of turning the switch and cooling the 
electric ice box to 40, more or less. 

Youngsters greeted the ice man, and from the tail 
of the cart each picked up a chip of ice and put it 
in the mouth on a hot summer day. 

The day before Fourth of July many a house- 
keeper bought a 25 cent cake of ice, and put it in 
the wash tub, and later chopped it up for cooling the 
pitcher of lemonade and freezing two quarts of home 
made ice cream. 

A few of the elders frowmed at the Arctic luxury. 
They recalled the years when the butter, and the 
milk, were put in the spring, or in the bucket in the 
well to keep them cool in summer. 

As for ice cold drinks, they would have none of 
them. It was their rule of health to never to drink 
anything too cold, nor too hot. 

Salem folks, of the nineties, had Wenham lake ice, 
renowned for its purity at home and abroad. 

Capt. "Ed'' Trumbull, when he saw the ice wagon 
coming along, sometimes told of how he carried car- 
goes of Wenham lake ice to India, also to China, and, 
occasionally, stacked barrels of apples on the ice in 
the hold of his ship. 



8 Old Salem Scrap Book 

SOME OLD TIMEKS LIVED LO:Na 

Looking back to the happy nineties, and there- 
abouts, it seems as if an uncommon number of per- 
sons lived long and enjoyed the experience. 

There was, for example, '^Grammy'' Connery. 
The reporter, hearing that she was four score, 
called on her and found her taking a batch of home 
made bread from the oven. With Irish hospitality 
she offered the scribe a slice of hot bread and a cup 
of tea. "Years,'' she explained, ''everybody has 
years. So why bother about them ?'' When news 
arrived that her oldest son in Ireland had died at 
80, folks said she ''must be a hundred.'' She lived 
106 years, by the birth certificate from Ireland. 

There was also Capt. Thomas Fuller who walked 
about our streets until he was 90 and more. Boys 
found it hard to believe that the old seaman has put 
down a mutiny in the China sea, and had survived 
a piracy in the Carribean. 

Some of the mayors lived long, as if to offer ex- 
amples of good health and longevity to ordinary citi- 
zens. 

Hon. David P. Waters skated on the old Mill 
pond after he was 70, as he had every winter 
since boyhood. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 9 

The scholarly Hon. Kobert S. Eantoul strode along 
briskly at 80, in winter wearing knee high boots, 
stont of sole. In youth, and in like boots, he walked 
home from Harvard college for week ends. 

Hon. James F. Turner, who preferred to be called 
"Jim," carried on until he was 90 and more. He 
sometimes, mixing his business of measuring leather 
and affairs of City Hall, worked 20 hours in a day. 

The buoyant Hon. John F. Hurley, at 80, wore 
his tall silk hat at a jaunty angle, waltzed lightly 
and commented brightly on politics and the ways of 
the human race. ''Right on deck" was his slogan 
that kept him going. 

Tanners, too, lived long. Some explained that the 
smell of bark, used to tan leather up to the nineties, 
was good for the throat and lungs. 

The Salem Senate, chalking down age records on 
the walls, once made up a list of seven tanners, all 
active, whose ages averaged 77 years. Is there any 
record of longevity like that in any trade in this 
century. 

The Salem Senate, a group of elder tanners, met 
in Joshua B. Grant's store, in Blubber Hollow, where 
he made tables and tools for tanners. Joshua, as a 
youth, sailed to California in 1849 to hunt for gold, 
returned home and for many a year kept his shop, 



10 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



and then retired to liis farm in Ipswich where he 
lived to be four score and more. 

His clerk, Frank Wade, of such sound sense that 
he was called ''The Ipswich Lawyer/' also retired 




MATTHEW ROBSON 
A Busy Man At 90 

to his farm, and the records say that at 90 he '^fished, 
hunted and skated.'' 

On Washington's birthday, in the year of 1923. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 11 

Matthew Eobson, in honor of his 90th birthday, was 
greeted by friends and fellow citizens assembled in 
Ames Hall of the Y.M.C.A. of which he was presi- 
dent. 

He was also a leading church man, and a builder 
of houses of worship, a trustee of the Bertram 
library, president of Salem hospital, director of 
ISTaumkeag Trust Co., and director of American 
Hide & Leather Co., his years in the leather indus- 
try being about 70. He whimsically remarked that 
he had wondered what a man should do after he was 
four score and ten, and, after thinking it over, de- 
cided to keeping on doing what he had been doing, 
which he did for four years more. 

It seems, looking back to the nineties and there- 
abouts, that some folks then knew^ the way to "geiitlj 
glide down the stream of life.'' Has the art been 
lost? If so, how may it be legained. 



THE BOOK REVIEWER 

Col. Benjamin Pickman, soldier and merchant, 
wrote in his Bible in 1773, he then being 70 and 
more : — 

"I've read this Bible 71 times, and am starting 
to read it through again." 



12 Old Salem Scrap Book 

OLD SALEM FISH CHOWDEK 

^'The method of making a genuine old Salem fish 
chowder was many years a family secret" began 
''Ben" Barrels, -the old seaman of the limber tongue. 

''There's no harm to be done by telling it now, be- 
cause the chowder can not be duplicated. We haven't 
the makings these days, nor the patience to attend 
to the details of the cooking. That's a consequence 
of the tin can age. At least, so I think. 

"My uncle Abijah was the last of the Barrels 
family to make a genuine old Salem fish chowder. 
Listen a while and I'll tell you how he did it. 

"First, he caught his fish, a thumping big cod, 
and then, after cleaning him, he put him in the 
kettle, bones, head and all, added three quarts of 
water from the spring — not from the faucet, mind 
you, but live, sparkling water from the spring — 
added a little salt and simmered him on the stove 
for half an hour or so. 

"After the kettle cooled off, Uncle 'Bije' cut up 
the big fish into little pieces, and floured them. Then 
he cut up a pound of salt pork into thin slices, and, 
also, three or four onions from the garden, and fried 
both in a pan until they were golden brown. 

"He also cut up a half a dozen potatoes, after 
digging them from the kitchen garden, and then he 



Old Salem Scrap Book 



13 



got out the big chowder kettle, and in it stacked 
layers of fish, pork and onions and potatoes, and 
poured in the water in which he had boiled the fish, 
and put the whole on the stove to simmer. 

''After half an hour or so, he salted and peppered 
the chowder to taste, and added a pound of butter, 
and a pint of cream and some milk, and covered the 
kettle and let it simmer some more. 




"A WHALE OF A COD FISH" 
A Specimen of An 82 Pound Cod in Peabody Museum 

"While 't was cooking, he went down to the ship's 
bakery, and got a few pounds of chowder crackers, 
and added a portion of them to the chowder, after 
dipping them into cold water from the spring. 

''When that chowder was done, the family sat 
down to feast. A bowl or two of it was a pretty 
good meal. Same was shared with the neighbors, and 
among them were stout men who, when they heard 
that Uncle 'Bije' was making an old Salem fish 



14 Old Salem Scrap Book 

chowder, rowed round the harbor so as to get an 
appetite. 

^'That's the way a genuine old Salem fish chowder 
was made. 'No harm in telling the family secret 
now. The chowder can not be duplicated, l^o big 
fresh cod fish these days, you know, and no potatoes 
and onions rio'ht out of the kitchen o-arden, nor the 
patience to attend to the detail of the art of cooking. 

''The tin can age has some economies to be sure. 
But there are hours when I yearn for the nourish- 
ment of a good old Salem fish chowder." 

''QUAKER SUNDAY" 

Who recalls "Quaker Sunday?" 

Boys, of the nineties, watched Quakers walking to 
their red brick meeting house on Warren street, and 
called it "Quaker Sunday." 

The Quakers walked slowly and meditatively, 
some in Quakers garb, some dressed more worldly, 
but none in pride or vanity. They walked serenely, 
as men and women who had put aside cares and 
troubles of the work week, to make Sunday a day of 
worship in their calm and peaceful way. 

"Quaker Sunday" — quiet and peaceful, what if 
it should return to this noisy, troubled world? 



Old Salem Scrap Book 15 



THE BABY BUGGY 

A carriage maker built it to last 100 years to a 
day as did the deacon's one horse chaise. 

In it, the ancestor rode, and so did his children 
and his grandchildren. But the babies of the next 
generation rode in a carriage lighter and more fancy. 




THE ANCESTEAL BABY BUGGY 

Jack and Jill, in their days, rode in "the speed 
wagon'' gas engined and rubber tired. 

Little Judy rode in a hammock slung in the auto- 
mobile. She's now an airplane hostess. 

And so you have a fragment of an idea of changes 
in baby carries in old Salem. 



16 Old Salem Scrap Book 



HOW LIFE IS SPENT 

An old Salem gentleman, of the nineties, pasted 
this newspaper clipping in his scrap book : 

''An eminent statistician has figured that the aver- 
age man of 60 has spent the years of his life thus — 

''20 years in sleep. 

"17^ years in working. 

"7-J years in pursuit of pleasure. 

"3 years in eating, and nine months more while wait- 
ing to be served. 

"6^ years in walking, or otherwise exercising for 
health. 

"2 years in this and that, like getting hair cuts and 
the beard trimmed, and shopping. 

"2^ years in doing nothing at all, or loafing." 

It may be that the old gentleman didn't approve 

of the statistics, for he penned beneath the clipping — 
"Don't be an averao'e man. — nor a statistician." 



Old Salem Scrap Book 17 



^'mag:n^etic kepose" 

Do you sleep north and south, or east and west? 
I^ot that it matters now. Old Salem seaman be- 
lieved in sleeping north, when they could, so as to 
pick up electrical currents like the compass. 

In the scrap book of a Salem gentleman of the 
nineties is pasted a cli2>ping entitled ''Magnetic Re- 
pose." Baron Reichenbach is quoted as saying that 
''Sleeping with the feet towards the equator is good 
for the health, while sleeping east and west is slow 
suicide.'' 

Furthermore, it's told that "Dr. Eishweick, of 
Megdeburg who habitually slept with his head 
towards the North Pole, lived 109 years." 

The old gentleman, who kept the scrap book, did 
not add a note to tell which way he slept. 

BIG WIND AND .HAIL 

The big wind of Sept. 23, 1815, blew ocean's 
water over Salem wharves and into streets, and it 
blew salt spray inland 40 miles. 

The big hail storm of Aug. 1, 1815, broke 130,000 
window panes in old Salem houses. 



18 Old Salem Scrap Book 



THE pukita:^ hat 

John Puritan wore a hat tall of crown and wide of 
brim. 




THE PRACTICAL PUEITAN HAT 

Its tall crown kept his head warm in winter and 
cool in summer. 

Its broad brim kept the sun out of his eyes and 
the rain and snow off his ears and the back of his 
neck. 



Old Salem Scrap Book 19 

He had no sinus troubles, and his ears did not get 
deaf. He breathed air scented with pine and balsam, 
as well as wore a hat high of crown and wide of brim. 

The hat band made of woolen felt, was good for a 
life time and the oldest son succeeded to it and its 
benefits. 



CALIFOKNIA SONG 

When the bark Eliza sailed from Derby wharf in 
1849, the gold-seekers sang a long song to the tune 
of ''Oh! Susannah.'' One verse is offered: — 

"T came from Salem City 

With my washboard on my knee ; 

I'm going to California 

The gold dust for to see. 

It rained all day the day I left. 

The weather it was dry ; 

The sun so hot I froze to death. 

Oh, brother, don't you cry. 

The Chorus. 

"Oh, California ! 

That's the land for me ! 

I'm going to California 

With my wash board on my knee." 



20 Old Salem Scrap Book 



THE OLD BAKERY 

Housekeepers sent, or carried, pots of beans to the 
bakery Saturday morning. The baker chalked on each 
pot the initials of its owner, and put it in the oven. 
The owner called for the pot of baked beans, hot from 
the oven, in time for supper. Usually, the pot was car- 
ried in a ])andanna or bundle handkerchief. A custom 
somewhat social. At least, news and gossip was ex- 
changed while customers waited for beans — and the 
baker did up a loaf of brown bread. 



THE THREE SIDES 

"Keep in mind that there are three sides to eacli 
argument — 

"Your side, my side and the right side.^' 

From a salesman's note hool-. 



m fa5 



